by Ken Walker
The only choices?
June 10, 2007
Here is a look behind the “Renaissance” hype. South Orange Avenue, amid timid signs of rebirth, the street is dominated by vacant lots, dilapidated buildings, and overall signs of government and private sector neglect. The children who live in the area and attend the schools occasionally – but literally – have to dodge bullets to get to and from school; not to mention the other (less dramatic but equally real) threats to their safety. Their schools – understaffed, overstretched – for the most part make a serious, but largely unsuccessful, effort to provide them with an education.
And yet, these children, and their parents, have not been forgotten by our national institutions. At South 13th street, an abandoned lot and dilapidated building serves as the frame for this advertising plug: a recruitment poster for the Marines, flanked by an advertisement for Corona Beer.
My first reaction is always to ask: where the recruitment notices for our national corps of teachers and social workers? It’s a rhetorical question, of course – since, in the richest country in the world, such programs do not exist.
Then I get angry. It’s like the federal government (and our country’s citizenry) is saying: we do not value this community enough to guarantee that its residents have access to quality health care, housing, or education (let alone decent-paying jobs) – but we are more than happy to recruit its youth to kill and be killed in our “foreign entanglements.” And should they choose not to enter the service, the only path we set before them is one in which their only “way out” are daydreams and intoxicants.
The ironies abound. I wonder what impression the young men and women, overwhelmingly black, who attend West Side High School, across the street, might have of the White Marine, staring sternly across the overgrown grass in the vacant lot in front of him. Is he a model to be emulated, or the symbol of a repressive authority to be hated and feared? And what about the idyllic image of the beach in the Corona advertisement – conveniently surrounded by ugly physical manifestations of poverty and social collapse?
The talk of Newark’s “Renaissance” will have much more meaning for me when I will no longer be able to take pictures like this one – because the decayed urban surroundings will have been replaced by a more dignified urban landscape, and there will be other options for Newark’s residents ASIDE from the armed forces or intoxication.
Hey, it’s frustrating, but come on. Hasn’t this site posted articles with references to how Newark public school students have 75% more than the national average spent on them per student. Let’s lay off the white people on this one.
Thank you so much for posting this. Amidst all the talk of condos and art museums, we cannot forget that there cannot be a full revitalization until we rehabilitate these troublesome areas of Newark. We will not completely ressurrect our city until we address our poor education system, overstretched police force, and poor housing options. As for these ads, it is blatant attempt to attract our Black and Latino men to a warped sense of security. Either by helping to fight a senseless war or through the drink. It’s a shame what our society continues to do to our men of color.
We have a long way to go here in Newark, but I applaud your blog for keeping these dialouges going. We cannot wait for others to come and fix our problem. It starts with us. We must ask- What can we do to help fix our city?
As someone who grew up in the central ward I have news for you. This is the a part of the city that has always been a promble. As far back as the 50’s. The key to getting things in better shape is to shaped up the central ward. Once that is done the growth will move at a faster pace.
As a response to Matt C:
“Let’s lay off the white people on this one.”
exactly which “white pepole” should we lay off of? since i didn’t mention any in the article, i’m just going to make a list, you can tell me which ones you were referring to:
-the factory owners and shareholders, who abandoned the city in search of cheaper labor and higher profits, depriving the locals from access to well-paying, unionized jobs?
-the corporate lawyers, who manipulated the compliant courts into granting legal personhood to corporations?
-the racist power structure that precipitated the riots?
-the federal government agencies and bankers who systematically discriminated against granting loans for home purchases and improvement in poor communities of color?
-the alcohol industry, which profits from the peddling of deadly and addictive substances in poor communities?
-the various levels of government who choose to spend more money on “defense” than all the other countries in the world combined, instead of creating a national corps of teachers, doctors, and social workers?
-the arms manufactuerrs whose weapons flood the streets of poor communities?
i could continue, but i’ll wait for a constructive reply
I can see the point of both Matt’s. But keep in mind that dispite the bad hand that has been given to Newark via the powers that be. The city has been slowly pulling itself together for the past 40 years. And will continue to over come it current situation. My only concern is that it will be done by a buch outsiders(most of them New Yorker)
In your long list you’re now condemning people who have neglected their supposed responsibilities to black people in Newark. But when the white soldier holds out a hand of opportunity in the armed forces, he’s a racist oppressive symbol.
Did the factory owners really leave the city in search of cheaper labor, or out of fear of rioting blacks (whatever your justification for it) and the fact that people would most likely be frightened to patronize their businesses if they stayed in Newark anyway.
You are mad at corporations for having “personhood” (I don’t know what you’re talking about here) but you also are mad at them for abandoning Newark, while Cory Booker was recently out in Vegas begging for “corporations” to return.
Weapons flood the streets and homes of many white communities too, I’m sure you know.
Look, I live in the Newark vicinity (not the city). I want to see Newark be a great city again. I want to see the blacks of Newark get good grades and jobs, stop killing each other, stop smoking crack, etc….
I believe most of the problems in black communities are all tied directly or indirectly to having no fathers. Probably every other social pathology would end if blacks could break the cycle of single moms raising kids.